A very singular quartet
Drummer Andrew Cyrille creates a space where his colleagues can shine in the spotlight
Andrew Cyrille Quartet
The News
Bill Frisell (guitar), David Virelles (piano, synthesiser), Ben Street (double bass), Andrew Cyrille (drums)
ECM 352 0703
Subtle, reflective and occasionally nostalgic in a knowing sort of way, this album exceeds the sum of its parts while at the same time allowing those parts to retain their identities. Devotees of Bill Frisell might argue that his spacious, unhurried style can impose these qualities on any recording he appears on, but here he’s simply one of a group of kindred spirits guided gently by Cyrille, who has always excelled at balancing freedom with discipline.
The music moves naturally on a tidal ebb and flow of both actual and implied rhythms, occasionally rambling off at a benevolently distracting tangent via a light-footed blues or an excursion into what sounds suspiciously like free improvisation, or just playfully running away with itself out of pure mischief. Wonderful, thoroughly immersive stuff, perfectly served by ECM’S lucid and detailed recording that preserves each musician’s contribution while simultaneously integrating them into a seamless whole that concludes with Cyrille opening the final piece with a poem. It works for me. ★★★★★
November round-up
Andrew Cyrille’s labelmate (see Jazz Choice) Marc Johnson has recently added to the microtradition of solo bass albums with the excellent Overpass.
The bass is an instrument that an imaginative player can almost literally dig into for solo material, exploiting its size, range and resonance. Johnson does all this and more with this mixture of original and sourced pieces, covering every aspect of the instrument’s inherent potential and adding a brief visit to overdubbed looping to create some sprightly multi-part statements. (ECM 381 0819) ★★★★★
It’s yet another testament to the variegated nature of the music that the above album and Arturo O’farrill ’s ...dreaming in lions… both belong under the jazz umbrella. The son of the legendary Chico, O’farrill has clearly picked up his father’s baton as a fine exponent of the Afro-cuban/ Afro-latin tradition, with his signing to Blue Note featuring his Afro-latin Jazz Ensemble performing a pair of dance suites. This is, however, a pleasingly progressive take on such music, as if the sophisticated arrangements of Lalo Schifrin had been genespliced with the classic jazz septet version of Soft Machine. (Blue Note 384 0332) ★★★★
Regrettably, the late Chick Corea’s Akoustic Band LIVE suffers from some clumsy production decisions. The twodisc release is burdened with the presumption that a recording of a complete concert (made at SPC Music Hall, St Petersburg, Florida in 2018) must be a good thing regardless of how well it translates to disc. Also, for some reason Corea’s piano sound has the kind of upper-register digital glare that caused endless listener fatigue in the 1980s. The music redeems this to an extent: the pianist’s structural sense and inventiveness are fully deployed (few others could switch from swing to bossa and back again in exactly two bars, which actually happens at one point) and his veteran rhythm section, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl, is in fine form. Rather than dusting off your graphic equaliser, you may prefer to wait for the hopefully warmer sound of the vinyl release, due early next year, which may remedy the situation (Concord Jazz CJA 00291) ★★★
Finally, two recent releases on Ubuntu: When Can I See You Again? marks the debut of trumpeter Sean Gibbs as leader with a set of fearless small-group originals. The combination of laid-back swing with a confident rolling-and-tumbling interplay is genuinely uplifting, scooping up township lilt and occasional Latin influences along the way. Gibbs shares horn duties with tenorist Riley Stone-lonergan, both fluent and alert, while the rhythm section is supportive throughout. Fine stuff. (Ubuntu UBU 0083) ★★★★★
On the same label, saxophonist Dave O’higgins and pianist
Graham
Harvey are, not unreasonably, the core members of The Harvey/ O’higgins Project, manifest as a quartet on That’s the Way to Live! The objective is the mixing of standards and in-style new pieces in a fresh and enquiring look at the existing jazz repertoire, tracking elements of continuity and change; and, further, exploring the Tardis-like attributes of well-known forms and styles which, in the right hands, are always bigger on the inside. It’s a nice idea, and Harvey and O’higgins’s are very much the right hands. (Ubuntu
UBU0094) ★★★★